Fred Waring Show
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
Fred Waring was one of the most famous bandleaders and proponents of choral singing of the Twentieth Century. Fred and his “Pennsylvanians” became the first singing band, the first to use megaphones, to feature vocalists with an orchestra, to combine an orchestra with a glee club, and made one of the first full-length musical talking pictures. His innovations in live performance led to a long career on radio which spilled into the early years of television. Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians were fixtures of WW2 war bond rallies and entertainment for training facilities for service personnel. Waring was a fan of comic strips, and hosted many cartoonists at his home and at the Shawnee Inn resort he owned. Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy, appears on his program in one of the recordings in the Hehn collection. Waring had a massive collection of artwork from many prominent comic strip artists, usually prepared exclusively for him in gratitude for his support and hospitality. Fred Waring was an entrepreneurial musician, but his entreprenurial talent extended beyond entertainment and into a much different business, “The Waring Blendor.” The invention became a common kitchen appliance for making meals and drinks, long before food processors and smoothie-makers became available. Fred had a blender whenever he traveled and shared various concoctions for guests and band members. The Waring blenders are still in extensive use in commercial and institutional kitchens around the world. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.